There are more hosting options than ever, from traditional VPS providers to fully managed platforms and serverless setups.
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I've mainly been using DigitalOcean (App Platform or Droplets) with Cloudflare on top. It's simple, reliable, and gives me just enough control without overcomplicating things. Also love their managed products like databases, Kubernetes, Spaces and etc.
Solid stack! We've had a great experience with DigitalOcean too. Their managed offerings like Spaces and Kubernetes make it easy to stay focused on shipping instead of managing everything from scratch.
As a solo developer wearing many hats, I host my Frontend on Vercel and my Backend on Render while using Supabase for Authentication, Storage & Database. I don't have time to manage every part and would much rather focus on building the product.
Nice setup. Vercel, Render, and Supabase make a great combo for solo devs. Has it been smooth, or have you hit any limits with that stack?
I've read some horror stories with Vercel billing, though not used it myself so not sure if those are true at all.
Everything’s been running pretty smoothly so far. I haven’t actually promoted the app yet since I’m still fine-tuning things, but this is where it’s at:
👉 designspo-webpage.vercel.app/
Feel free to poke around!
I haven’t ran into any major limitations. For everything I need right now, it’s all been doable. The only real issue was with Render’s free tier — it doesn’t include persistent instance types, which can cause slow response times (up to 30 seconds) after periods of inactivity ‼️. I had to upgrade to a paid instance to avoid that downtime.
With Supabase, I’m also using the free tier for now. The only catch is that the database can be paused if there’s no activity, so I make sure to trigger some usage at least once a week to keep it alive.
Also, you have to understand Supabase’s Row Level Security (RLS) which was something new to me. It basically adds an extra layer of protection to your database by making sure users can only access the rows of data they’re supposed to. So, for example, a user can only view or modify their own saved content, not anyone else’s.
As for Vercel, I’ve heard the horror stories when it comes to surprise billing. Luckily, I haven’t added any card details yet, so I’m somewhat protected while in development. That said, I'm pretty sure there's ways to prevent skyrocketing bills. I guess it’s just a matter of reading how Vercel works. This is something I need to look into more myself, so it'd be nice to hear a comment on this part.
What are you using and why?
Great setup! I've heard about the same issue with Render cold starts. Supabase RLS takes a minute to get but works well. I'm on DigitalOcean and Cloudflare for simplicity and cost control!
Currently all over the shop!
My main bits are on AWS, but due to starting one project on Firebase it's split across Firebase for web hosting and AWS for DB + backend.
I've also got a PoC being hosted by lovable.dev, with Supabase hosting the DB (and Auth). I've been trying to get that up onto Cloudflare but time + effort is making that slow burning.
Relatable! It's so easy to end up with bits of your stack scattered across platforms. Curious how lovable.dev is working out, haven't seen many people using it yet.
It's generally whatever convenient at the time or just something I want to try out. AWS is my real default because I use it at work
Lovable is... interesting. I'm definitely going to write a blog post about it, but the TL;DR is:
If you're curious, follow along at YakStak.app
I've been using Vercel because my main stack is React and Next.js, I'm focused on Frontend dev, but Next.js has built-in API routes that let me easily integrate a backend layer along with Supabase, and hosting it in Vercel is the easiest way to deploy a Next.js app.
However, all that magic that Next.js does with image optimization, edge functions, and all that stuff has a cost; as long as my traffic between apps hosted there doesn't reach the limit, I don't have to worry about the bill. I'm not sure if I am willing to switch to a paid plan once I start getting too much traffic unless I start doing something for commercial purposes, maybe I'll consider self-hosting my own apps that I build for fun.
Makes sense. Vercel really shines for frontend devs, especially with Next.js. Curious to see if people stick with it long term or go the self-hosting route once traffic picks up.
Just moved to Cloudflare from AWS for my Vite site. Cloudflare offers no egress fees for data and has recently entered into the realm of server less workers for API and backend actions. My site that has a similar format to YT Shorts or TikTok only costs me $1 per 1 million views in operating costs on Cloudflare. It would cost hundred per million in AWS.
I personally love Cloudflare Pages/Workers with automated GitHub Actions with most projects but use Vercel for more demanding SSR. The workflow is near interchangeable. Don't find a lot of people using Cloudflare though. it's nice because they are my DNS, registrar, security, with various integrations all in one and their instructor works great for AI, bringing down cost, and scale. It is a different ecosystem to learn though. Best of luck!
I love Cloudflare! It really is kinda OP. I've been using Pages for a bunch of static sites too, super fast, easy to set up, and just works. The whole ecosystem takes a bit to learn, but once you're in, it's hard to go back.
We use Hetzner colocation – dirt cheap, rock solid, and fully GDPR-compliant (EU-based). For CDN we went with Bunny: great performance, simple setup, and same EU-first approach. We prefer managing our own infra – full control without the crazy AWS bills and vendor-lockin.
That's a cool combo. I’ve been sticking with DigitalOcean since I trust them, but Hetzner sounds tempting. Have you run into any issues with them so far?
Just once, about 1,5 hours down time on nodes in one location. Unfortunately it was our K8S management nodes. Hetzner was really quick to find the technical issue and fix. I was kind of impressed.
I use Google Cloud Platform as the foundation for all my applications. It all started when I got free access and decided to try it out — now I'm used to it and completely satisfied. Why Google Cloud specifically? They have everything I need:
Additionally, I use Cloudflare for domain management and CDN — this combination works just perfectly.
I'm one of those who likes to set everything up from scratch myself. I choose Debian on servers — stable, predictable, minimalist. I like having full control over the infrastructure, understanding what works and how it works
That's a solid setup. GCP and Cloudflare go really well together, and Debian is a great choice if you like keeping things clean and in your control.
I use digitalOcean, because it's cheap, and I can choose whatever linux server I want.
I like to configure all from the beginning using digitalOcean droplets.
I choose it also, because they had good tutorials to configure and deploy your apps with droplets.
Same here, DigitalOcean Droplets give you full control without much hassle. The tutorials are a big plus too. Do you usually stick to one stack, or change it up per project?
We use lots of VPS providers but always with DeployHQ <3
DeployHQ looks slick. I've not used it myself yet. Do you use it mainly for CI/CD or also for server management?
Mainly CI/CD
Nice! Might have to try it soon.
I've used GCP and AWS in the past. Now I'm planning to try DigitalOcean. It's gonna be exciting since my project is docker compose-based, so I'm going to figure out how to use Kompose and Kubernetes and automate everything.
Sounds like a fun project ahead. Kompose is a great way to ease into Kubernetes if you're coming from Docker Compose. Let me know how it goes with DigitalOcean! I've been a customer for a long time and they've been solid!
My VPS apps are on both Digital Ocean and Linode. As for why, back when I was setting up, the referral program for DO was appealing (friend gave me a referral code), and price was good. I chose to deploy one app to Linode to leverage their Stack Script and get a slightly lower price for still sufficient specs for that app.
Makes sense. Gotta love a good referral deal!
Using Railway due to the high customization levels and incredible pricing...
Railway's been gaining a lot of fans lately. I've not tried it yet myself. How's it been for reliability and cold starts?
I have stable systems running there for years. Their build and deploy tools have changed recently, and everything auto updated without need of adjusting anything on my side. Everything is just working as expected.
Using the serveless mode works fine as well. But for databases for example, the first connection fails, so you need to make sure your code makes at least 2 tries before throwing an error, its then works immediately.
You can also clusterize your instances and use the internal network with minimum effort.
That's really a game changing for teams that dont have expertise in devops.
That's super helpful, thanks for sharing. The DB retry tip is great, didn't know about that. Sounds like Railway's come a long way! Might have to try it soon.
Using Sevalla for small projects, it provide supports for frontend, backend and database. Feels cheap and having good customer support too
Nice! I've not tried it but might give it a go!
I've bounced between a bunch of these and always come back to DigitalOcean for control and price. The Cloudflare combo is rock solid
Same here, that combo just works. DO gives you control without the AWS-level complexity, and Cloudflare handles the rest like a champ.
Thank you for the info
Anytime! Curious, what's your current hosting setup?
Anything serving HTML
Nice! I mostly use the DigitalOcean App Platform and Cloudflare for static stuff. What’s your go-to setup for serving HTML?
dev.to/sebs/vanilla-standards-vibe...
Hetzner with ploi, due to easy to manage multiple apps on single VPS server and cost effective.
and static sites on Netlify.
Try Hetzner, it's cheap. Using it since 2016.